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Brooker Creek name change?

The overseer of the preserve suggests giving the older "management area" designation to that land parcel and three others.

By THERESA BLACKWELL
Published June 13, 2006

In the midst of the controversy over whether to pump water from beneath the Brooker Creek Preserve to water golf courses, the official who oversees the preserve suggested taking "preserve" out of the names of Brooker Creek and three other county preserves.

"Preserve," as used at Brooker Creek, the Weedon Island Preserve, Shell Key Preserve and Mobbly Bayou Wilderness Preserve, may be a source of confusion, even a misnomer, says Bruce Rinker, division director Pinellas County's environmental lands division.

"I would like to propose that we consider the removal of the term "preserve' and return to the older designation of "management area,' " Rinker said in a May 12 e-mail to assistant county administrator Liz Warren and other high-ranking county officials.

"If we call the place the Brooker Creek Management Area, then it may be clear to citizens that such places - though valued as open-space resources - are parcels of land, water and biodiversity that are actively managed to partner with our long-term needs as citizens in central/west Florida," Rinker added.

Bad idea, say some critics.

"They are presenting him as the environmental savior," said Lorraine Margeson, an environmental activist from St. Petersburg. "And he's ready to turn it all into dust."

No, Rinker said, that's not the idea at all.

"My gosh, I can't even ask people to consider this without getting blasted," Rinker said Monday.

"I just want to consider it as part of managing these precious parcels in the environmental lands division."

So far, there have been no indications that the county plans to act on Rinker's suggestion, though at least one commissioner is willing to talk about it.

"I think it's worthy of more discussion; preserve means different things to different people," said County Commissioner Susan Latvala. Latvala is working on a proposal to set aside a fraction of the Brooker Creek Preserve for various uses and then protect the rest.

Still, she acknowledged, "it's a preserve now in everyone's minds, and I don't think you can change that."

Early this month, county officials said they would ask the state to suspend its review of its proposal to reactivate three wells in the preserve. The delay, officials said, is to reassure state regulators about the details of tests the county did on the wells and to give the county's new Environmental Science Forum a chance to consider the proposal.

Historically in Pinellas County, Rinker said, newly acquired lands are called management areas. When the Cohunty Commission approves a management plan for the lands, the name is changed to "preserve." And that has happened for four of the county's 15 tracts of environmental land.

"These are highly managed parcels in densely urbanized settings," he said. "There's nothing pristine about them."

Daily management involves burning, tree cutting, clearing vegetation, pumping water and marking plants and animals, he said.

His own definition of preserve:

"The preserves, in my mind, are open-space resources held in the public trust, with checkered histories, complex needs and challenging futures in densely urbanized settings," he said.

For his definition, Mathew Poling, the senior executive of the Friends of Brooker Creek Preserve, goes to the recreation and open space element of the county comprehensive plan, which says a preserve is:

"An area set aside specifically for the protection and safekeeping of natural resources."

Would Poling ever agree with a name change to the Brooker Creek Management Area?

"No! Never!" he said. "It is clear to me that doing so would make it easier for the county to use the land and resources within the preserve for purposes that are not consistent with a preserve."

Rinker just doesn't get it, Poling said.

"We know it's not pristine," he said. "But it's still worth protecting."

[Last modified June 13, 2006, 01:04:09]